name game shirt

One of the songs the kids did during Studio 54 was "The Name Game" complete with hand motions, etc. Each of the kids had to wear a shirt with their name on the front. Can you see Madison wearing a yellow shirt with black letters?


Madison told us she needed a shirt with her name on it, so we bought the iron-on letters & she did her own shirt.

The NIGHT before the show Dillon declares he needs a shirt too. Madison offers to iron Dillon's shirt.
Here's how the evening progressed:
Madison: "There isn't an 'N' for Dillon's name!"
Scott: "Cut another iron-on letter into an 'N'"
Madison: "Good idea"
*** She accidentally made a backwards 'N' from a capital 'W' ***
Scott: "I can fix it with a permanent marker, I'll just fill in this part..."
*** Now it looks like a large blob instead of any letter - see photo below ***
Madison: "Maybe I can cut away some of the iron-on material & make it look like an 'N'
*** She starts cutting left-handed with a right-handed pair of scissors ***
*** Shelly grabs the scissors & says ***
Shelly: "Both of you have messed this up, let me fix it!"
*** Shelly gracefully cuts right through the fabric so a nice hole emerges.
*** Shelly & Madison are laughing so hard that Madison runs to the bathroom & Shelly starts crying from laughing.
Dillon: "I'm NOT wearing that"
Madison stenciled his name on another shirt with permanent marker. Looked great! :)

studio 54

Father & Son sing a version of Cecila by Simon & Garfunkle. They harmonize well! It was used as Dinner Music - so there's a bit of background noise, but I think they did great!


Did we tell you Dillon could tap dance... we just found out too!

Dillon was in 12 numbers!

Dillon forgot to put on his tap shoes before the above video clip

and came sliding into position JUST as the music started playing.

This is his "whew!" face.
Madison is fixin' to get on the train!

I see Madison... where is Dillon?
Ta-Da! There he is!
How cool to have them standing so close to each other for a song.

Madison & 2 friends sang Dinner music. The song named "Fernando" by Abba. Sorry about being so far away... but listen carefully & you can hear Madison sing the lead.


Dillon sings a solo part of the grand finale. He's the 2nd singer - you can see him on the far end of the stage (the one without a hat).


After the show with the family.... Gee, do you think we all got dressed from the same closet, or what?! Dillon's buddy Daniel...Dillon's 'friend', Marissa....

mothers day

Dillon & Madison made me a nice BIG pancake for Mother's Day. I couldn't eat it all. How sweet. :)

Is it a bug?

Yes, that's it. A sleeping bug.

Jared's Senior Picture, 2009

madison dancing at spring show

I was surfing through the Stony Point website today & this picture was posted. Madison's dance group did a rendition of the West Side Story's "America". Madison is the one off to the right. She did such a good job!

Jared's Prom, 2009

Of course we have to start with pictures at home!

Then over at Kelly's. They make such a nice looking couple!

Jared & Kelly went with a group of friends. Wow! That's quite a group! Wondering how they're all going to fit in one car?! They paid for a PARTY BUS!

Here are Jared & Kelly on the bus on the way to prom.

They're still happy, but tired on the way home from prom too. What a great time for Jared on his senior prom. Kelly's a very lucky girl!

found again

I have a cool story...

So when I was in the 2nd & 3rd grade I had a BEST friend named Carrie. Her mom was a 'stay-at-home' mom so I went to her house everyday afterschool and then we spent full days together over the summers.

We did such silly things! Lots of silly things! I'm talking 'played with matches silly' and 'run-away-from-home' silly, we used to make prank phone calls together to random people. We wrote fan letters to Donny Osmond. We learned the art of hypnotizing our friends (not really).

Anyways, in the 4th grade my family moved across town, but Carrie & I stayed good friends. In the 6th grade her family moved to Texas (weirdly enough, they moved to Round Rock, Texas). In 7th grade we went on a family vacation to Texas & picked her up so she could spend time with me.

Unfortunately we didn't communicate too much after that until the late 1990's when Scott & I moved to Round Rock too. We got re-connected for a short while, but as fate would have it we moved back to Iowa in 1999.

Since we've been back in Round Rock for 1-1/2 years, I keep thinking I'll run into her or something... but hadn't seen anything about her, I figured she must've moved away. Until last Wednesday.
I got a request on my Facebook page from Carrie. A quick barrage of emails revealed that she IS still in Round Rock!
We got together for coffee that night and visited for a short 3 hours. So much to talk about! Carrie & I talked like NO TIME had passed since our last visit... (which was like 10 years ago). Awesome. She has 3 girls and married to a great guy. I stopped by her house yesterday to give her a copy of a Ginny Owens CD that might give her inspiration.
She is battling a cancer that won't leave her. Tomorrow she's having a liver re-section at M.D. Anderson in Houston.
I see this friendship being rekindled and staying lit! Seeing her brought me such joy this week and I think it was a bright spot for her too. I look forward to many more times of revisiting the past but what good things to look forward! What a great story!!

We've had some rain, finally!

This is the sight outside the front door when I went to work Tuesday morning. Dillon has a group of friends who own pickup trucks. And after a good rain they do this thing called "LET'S GO MUDDIN". There's a caravan of trucks that go mud-running through the trails and open fields around town.
It reminds me of a cross between the 'Jeep Adventure Tour' we took in Cozumel, Mexico and the show "My Redneck Wedding" on CMT.
Oh well, as long as no one gets hurt. And I'm NOT buying him another pair of shoes.

When my kids were little.... (geesh, how long ago THAT was!) Anyways, I subscribed to this magazine because it had so many cool things in it for us to do & it was a relatively cheap.

We liked the magazine so much that one day when Madison was in the 3rd or 4th grade I realized I had pre-paid the subscription all the way until the year Jared would be graduating from high school! HAHA That day is soooooo far in the future..... Until now. Oh My Gosh. This magazine really is going to stop coming to me. Reality Check. Jared really is going to be graduating next month. Can this really be happening to me?!

Whaa-laaa

Look what a straightener can do for Madison!

last rugby game

This picture is a big fuzzy since I took it from so far away, but here are the boys after the last Rugby Game of the season this year.

Madison & Jared...

I've been going through old pictures and found this one from 2003 so I compared it to one from last year. Aren't they a cute sister & brother?

John's getting married!

Well, the spring tour of "She Swings, She Sways" must've been very influential! He's decided to get married! Click here for news of the happy couple, John & Jenna. Congrats!! They will be married at the end of May...

Homesickness Bug

I caught the homesickness bug when I saw these pictures of my mom & dad on my sister-in-law's blog. I MISS YOU MOM & DAD!! Can't wait to see you next month!!

Of course I was feeling a little sad & lost because I haven't seen my mom & dad for a long time, but then I kept scrolling through the pictures and this one cheered me up & made me laugh!

Thanks for the laugh Will!

A special thanks to Jill for being so diligent with the pictures of her family and my parents.

hill country bluebonnets

Hill Country (southwest of Austin) got more rain than we did this spring, so they got LOTS of bluebonnets. Isn't this pretty?!

2009 Blue bonnet picture

Madison & I have decided to take an annual blue bonnet portrait. This is our 2nd annual picture. See this post for last year's photo. Whoops - I closed my eyes.

Whoops - the wind caught Madison's hair.

Easter Dinner in Wimberley

We had a wonderful lunch in Wimberley today for Easter! Here is Madison, Scott, Margaux and Dillon with Jared in front. It was close to 80 degrees and we enjoyed fellowship with family. Love You All!

Funny Story:
Dillon & Margaux were jumping on a trampoline in Jeannetta's backyard. The trampoline probably hasn't been jumped on in months... probably since the kids jumped on it last summer.

Anyways, Dillon takes off one of his tennis shoes and lobs it towards the patio, throwing it similar to horseshoes. BUT.... it got hung-up in a tree limb! Dangling by a shoestring!

Dillon threw his other shoe at it to try to knock it down. Uh oh, it got stuck too! Madison came runing in the house laughing so hard she almost peed her pants, but then the 2nd shoe came tumbing down. Leaving the 1st shoe up there.

Scott took the 2nd shoe and chucked it at the dangling shoe. No luck. Duke (the dog) now thinks this is a fun game we're playing & picked up the shoe on the ground & took off running towards the open field with it. Oh no! Scott chased him down and got it back, albeit was a little goobery on the top (ewwww!!).

Plan B entailed Scott throwing a really big stick at the shoe. Scott stood under the dangling shoe & speared the stick straight it. You'll never believe it, but the stick got stuck too and is now dangling next to the shoe. All of us are laughing so hard we've drawn a crowd as Kurt & Tim wake up from their after-lunch-naps and come out to see what's so funny.

Finally Jared & Dillon pull the trampoline under the shoe. They bounce higher and higher until Dillon grabs it. How funny! We all had a good laugh and very entertained.

Easter Church

Church this morning on a glorious Easter Sunday included worship with one of our favorite worship artists, Emily!

Hope your Easter was wonderful and you got a chance to worship the Risen God!